DX News Bits: Nicki Minaj, Drake

Even though Drake’s debut album album Thank Me Later garnered critical acclaim and went on to sell over 880,000 copies, the Toronto rapper says he still has some regrets about the album’s final outcome. Chief among these gripes is that the song “9 A.M. in Dallas” was unable to make the cut. According to the Young Money star, the song would have been the perfect intro to the album, but was unfortunately recorded the very day the album was to be mastered.

“The saddest part to me is that I would have made ‘9 AM in Dallas’ the intro for the album, but I did it the day of mastering, which is crazy, so it couldn’t make the album,” he told MTV. “That’s probably my greatest upset, was the fact that it couldn’t be on the physical disc and be a part of that album.”

Drake also bemoaned the numerous leaks prior to Thank Me Later‘s June 15 release. He says that the premature leaks of songs like “Shut It Down” and “Darlin'” – which ultimately did not make the album’s cut – proved to be irksome, but not wholly detrimental to the album’s overall quality.

“[The song] ‘Darlin” was a loss just because it was never mixed, and every time I hear it in the club, you can never really hear the words,” he explained. “Most of the music we held for a long time, and the stuff that did leak, it was pretty good references. It wasn’t anything I was too upset about. ‘Shut It Down’ leaking early was painful. I think it could have been a bigger record had it not been out there so long.”

While Drizzy is enjoying his own solo success, fellow Young Money rapper Nicki Minaj is gearing up for the November 23 release of her debut LP. Now, during a recent Ustream session, the Queens emcee announced that her debut will be titled Pink Friday.

“To carry on a great tradition of Black Friday, we are going to switch it up this year in honor of the Nicki Minaj album and call that day Pink Friday, and call my album Pink Friday,” she said.